All in Tidbit Tuesday

TIDBIT TUESDAY - BLENDING HERS AND HIS KIDS

Lisa Hartman
Blended Families, Life as a Step-Mom, Tidbit Tuesday

I'm on the road with my two daughters (his and mine) for a few days of shopping until we drop.  Twelve years ago - Little Hart was two and Elle was 5. Neither one was very happy about it.  Nor was Jax very happy about Elle and vice versus.

The first time we decided to get Elle and Jax together for a play date it was a disaster!  Elle asked to used the bathroom and Jax immediately ran into the bathroom, locked the door,refusing to come out! No accidents - there was another bathroom upstairs.  Jax didn't come out of the bathroom until we were safely in the car and on our way home.  

 

TIDBIT TUESDAY - A PUBLIC MARRIAGE PROPOSAL TO A MOM

Lisa Hartman
Blended Families, Life as a Step-Mom, Marriage , Step-kids, Tidbit Tuesday

Tidbit Tuesday is a forum where I can talk about the things I'm hearing and seeing out in the real world.

Opening night of the Evo Conference there were a number of speakers sharing their personal stories to inspire the audience.  The last speaker was a gentleman I'll call Mike.  Mike started talking about a woman I'll call Kim, initially I  thought she was his wife.  Slides were flashing on the big screen of Kim in her role as a mother, business owner. Mike was talking about how much he respected her and his learning curve in becoming a supportive partner to Kim.  As the speech progressed I gleamed from his phrasing that Mike and Kim were not married.  

Without warning, a slide popped up on the big screen: "Will you marry me?" Simultaneously, Mike said something along the lines what do you when you love a woman this wonderful - "Ask her to marry you!"  Kim was down in the audience, he on stage.  Silence from her!  Mike walked down to Kim's table, knelt down on one knee and asked her to marry him again. Silence from Kim.  

 

TIBIT TUESDAY - STEP-MOM HARDEST ROLE OF MY LIFE

Lisa Hartman
Blended Families, Life as a Step-Mom, Step-parenting, Tidbit Tuesday

Today feels like a Monday with the Holiday yesterday.  I'm having a hard time getting started even with my steaming cup of tea.  At least it's Tuesday and I'm posting Tidbit Tuesday on Tuesday so that's a plus this week! Yeah me!

After posting Tidbit Tuesday last week - many of the comments and conversations I had following brought up the question - Is being a Step-Mom the hardest, most challenging role I have had in my life?

My initial response was Y-E-S, hands down it's been the hardest role of my life!

As I was telling my Hubby this very thing - he said even more than being a Mom dealing with your daughter's Step-Mom?  I have had some very serious issues with Malus over the past 17 years.  As I took time to think about my relationships with the Step-Mom(Malus) and the Mom's(Bitty/Greta) I deal with in both roles my reaction was still a big YES! I jotted down the some of the differences. Here they are:

Some of my reasons why being a Mom and dealing with the Step-Mom to my child ranks second to being a Step-Mom:

TIDBIT TUESDAY - THE USUAL HIDING PLACE?

Lisa Hartman
Blended Families, Teenagers, Tidbit Tuesday

I know it's Thursday, but I'm doing my Tidbit Tuesday post today.  I've been on overload for the past couple of weeks.  Hopefully, I will get my timing back on for the Summer and then, well - it will be Fall! Ugh!

This week, I've been noticing some chatter about - FOOD! Kids and Step-Kids eating that special treat Mom's/Step-Mom's have saved as reward for that long day after work only to find that it was eaten by the munchkins!  It's a kids nature to eat what's in front of them. I've tried changing my eating habits to things I know they hate.  Then they get desperate - starving - breakdown and eat my treat.  They realize WOW - that's fantastic!  

Little Hart: Do we have any more of the Kettle Chips?

Me: Yes, they're in the hiding place.

Little Hart: The usual hiding place?

Me: Yes Dahling!

Yes, I have a hiding place - that all my kids know about. It may seem a little wacky and maybe even a little sad, but it's sanity to me.  I have an entire cabinet dedicated to the kids needs; cereal, chips, granola, treats. I used to put my treats in that same cabinet.  Only to find that when I wanted one or the seven bags of chip in the pantry all were open and stale because each kid decided to open a new bag every time they wanted some or that special treat - just an empty box!

 

Lisa Hartman
Blended Family Traditions, Life as a Step-Mom, Tidbit Tuesday
I'm starting a new thing called Tidbit Tuesday so I can share the meaningless and not so meaningless tidbits that I gleam from all my magazine reading. As you may have noticed, I have a new icon to go along with my theme day, thanks to the ever talented Elle! She created something I never could of done in a million years. Thanks Dahling! I've had this idea since the inception of my blog. I mentioned in "My Story" that I a love to read magazines and share a lot of meaningless tidibits. So far that has been reserved for my family. They typically roll their eyes and make fun of me incessantly about it. However, since the kids have gotten older they have slowly come over to the dark side and have come up with their own meaningless or meaningful tidbits to share as well. They usually start off "I know I'm probably going to sound like Mom here, but I found out this........" So I guess it's not so meaningless after all. Ha!